Wednesday

Apr 29, 2020 at 5:54 PM

Officials with the city of Amarillo as well as area medical professionals spoke during Wednesday’s COVID-19 news conference about the recent decision made by Gov. Greg Abbott to start reopening the state in phases while keeping the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in mind.

According to the daily report card released Wednesday by the city’s public health department, there are currently 600 active cases of the virus in Potter and Randall Counties, which is an increase of 80 from Tuesday. There are 442 active cases in Potter County and 158 in Randall County.

With the 101 recoveries, and the 11 deaths, there have been a total of 712 reported cases of COVID-19 in those counties. A total of 3,907 conducted COVID-19 tests have been reported to the public health department, with 430 of those still pending.

City Manager Jared Miller said the governor’s current executive order, which requires reopened services to provide services through pickup or delivery, ends at midnight Thursday.

Mayor Ginger Nelson said the governor’s order takes the decision away from the city on whether they are to reopen.

"We are going to follow the governor’s orders, of course," Nelson said. "I want to affirm that right up front. Starting Friday, there are some businesses in our city that will be able to reopen at 25 percent."

The city’s updated disaster declaration mirrored those provisions from state. Nelson said it is important to keep that order in place for the city to receive both federal and state funding to address COVID-19 expenses and the expenses related to the city’s response.

During the conference, representatives from area hospitals gave an update on the COVID-19 situation at their respective facilities.

Brian Weis, the chief medical officer at the Northwest Texas Health Care System, said his hospital currently has 48 positive patients in the hospital, which is the highest number they have had. Forty-three of the 62 dedicated beds in the hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) are occupied and 28 ventilators are currently being used for these patients.

Michael Lamanteer, the chief medical officer at the BSA Health Care System, said his hospital has 27 positive patients in the hospital, with 50 percent of those requiring ICU level care. The hospital has 19 total patients, both COVID-19 related and not COVID-19 related, on a ventilator.

Froy Garza, the interim medical center director for the Amarillo VA Health Care System, said for the first time in a long time, his hospital does not currently have any positive cases in the facility. They are continuing to monitor three or four positive cases of patients isolating at home.

Weis said on a daily basis at Northwest, they are seeing positive cases coming from the meat processing facility in Moore County, as well as the Clements Unit in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

According to the Moore County Hospital District website, there are 160 active cases of the virus in Moore County. Along with the 132 recoveries and the three deaths, there have been a total of 295 cases of the virus in the county, with 314 test results currently pending.

According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice website, there have been a total of 29 positive tests on offenders at the Clements Unit, with 13 tests currently pending. Twenty-one employees at the Clements Unit have tested positive for the virus.

Those hotspots, along with the executive order from the governor, concerns Weis, he said.

"Our concern is now with the opening of some of the services in the city, people are obviously going to be excited to go out and get somewhat back to normal life," he said. "What we can’t do is make Amarillo, the city itself, get another hotspot, compared to these other facilities… Between the meat processing plant and the prison, we really can’t afford to have another source of positives coming in without overwhelming the resources we have right now."

Nelson said it is important for community members to continue to stay in when possible and, when they have to go out, to continue to wear masks and social distance.

"Our graph has not leveled off in either county," Nelson said. "So, while our hospitals are not critical in their population yet, those numbers have grown in the last week. I’m worried that if we, as individuals, do not make the right choices, we could be facing a dangerous situation here in our city, as far as the outbreak is concerned."

Dr. Scott Milton, the city’s public health authority and an assistant professor at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Amarillo, also gave the community an update regarding the area’s convalescent plasma situation. The Globe-News reported earlier this month that plasma from individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 can be administered to people who are critically ill with the virus and can help them.

"We are up to 21 doses delivered and it looks like we have six potential local donors that could be scheduled in the next few days," Milton said.

For more information regarding the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, visit www.amarilloalerts.com. The next COVID-19 news conference will be at 11 a.m. Friday.

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